Harvested cars of corn come from the field sheathed in an enclosing husk, often surrounded by flag leaves, and occasionally still attached to portions of the stalk. For food processing, especially in the preparation of sweet corn for human consumption, all the husk, leaves, and stalk must be removed from the ears containing the edible kernels of corn.
Husking is conventionally achieved by feeding the bulk unhusked corn onto conveyor tables formed of two or more parallel rows of rotating husking rolls. The rolls are typically molded from rubber or other resilient material and have a number of parallel flights. The flights may be gradually inclined to provide auger-like advancement of the ears from the husker infeed to the husker discharge. Alternatively the rolls may have parallel exclusively axially extending flights. In addition to rolls with circular cross sections, husking rolls having mating elliptical cross section rolls are also know. Many configurations of roll surfaces are known, although two types are predominant, roll surfaces which continuously mesh with adjacent rolls, and those which are closely spaced from the adjacent roll.
Meshing flight rolls have the desirable effect of firmly engaging the corn husks for removing them from the ears. However, prior art roll designs while effective at discharging the thin husk material between engaged rolls, may not be able to pass the much thicker stalk without bending the axles on which the rolls are mounted. This axle flex can cause an overtight grip which will not release the stalk, producing a blockage of the flow of ears through the conveyor. In such a case the rolls will turn ineffectively, eventually fraying or wearing away the obstruction, but in the process causing accelerated wear of the rolls, requiring premature replacement of selected roll segments.
What is needed is a configuration of corn husking rolls which continuously advances the input corn ears without blockage or slowdowns, and which can accommodate larger sized stalks and trash to promote a steady and effective throughput of husked ears over a wide range of feed rates.